The expansion of the international heroin trafficking over the past three decades is exceptional in history and is directly related to the modern history of Afghanistan but also to the evolution of para-state mechanisms that operate both in ... Along those lines, a set of organizations, either terrorist, extremist of sect-like ones are further fuelling drug trade , whilst the nominal and legitimate state apparatuses reluctantly keep a blind eye for reasons extending to geopolitical ...

By Ioannis Michaletos/ Presentation from the international conference: “Opium Geopolitics”: AfghanDrug Traffic And The Fight Against It After 2014. ... Along those lines, a set of organizations, either terrorist, extremist of sect-like ones are further fuelling drug trade , whilst the nominal and legitimate state apparatuses reluctantly keep a blind eye for reasons extending to geopolitical strategies to simple inner political workings and the need to keep the balance of powers ...

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni must veto the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was passed in a surprise vote this morning, Amnesty International said. The passage of the Bill – which dramatically increases the criminal penalties for consensual sexual activity between adults of the same sex – amounts to a grave assault on human rights.

In addition to violating rights to privacy, family life and equality, the bill threatens freedom of association and expression – all protected under Ugandan and international human rights law. It institutionalizes discrimination against already marginalized lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) individuals in the country.

“President Museveni must veto this wildly discriminatory legislation, which amounts to a grave assault on human rights and makes a mockery of the Ugandan constitution,” said Aster van Kregten, Deputy Africa Director at Amnesty International.

“Passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was a retrograde step for Uganda’s Parliament, which has made some important progress on human rights in recent years, including criminalizing torture. It flies in the face of the Ugandan government's stated commitment to ensure all legislation complies with human rights.”

On 10 September this year the government’s Speaker of Parliament launched a human rights checklist to give lawmakers criteria to assess whether new pieces of legislation were at risk of violating key rights and freedoms protected by Uganda's Constitution, including freedom of expression and freedom from discrimination. Today’s passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill only three months later suggests Ugandan parliamentarians have completely disregarded this commitment.

According to Ugandan NGOs, an opposition Member of Parliament tabled the bill this morning without prior notice. Despite objections from the floor, the bill was swiftly adopted after its second and third readings both took place today, and now only requires presidential assent within 30 days for it to take effect.

The Anti-Homosexuality Bill was first introduced in 2009 and reintroduced to Parliament in 2012. Amnesty International and other Ugandan and international human rights organizations have repeatedly called for the legislation to be scrapped.

A provision in the earlier draft of the bill imposing the death penalty for “aggravated” homosexuality has been replaced with a life sentence. Among those who could be charged with “aggravated homosexuality” are so-called “serial offenders,” and anyone who is HIV-positive and found to have had sexual relations with a person of the same sex – even when such conduct is consensual and protected.

"This bill will institutionalize discrimination, hatred and prejudice in law against lesbian, gay, bisexual transgender and intersex Ugandans, who are already marginalized,” said Aster van Kregten.

Other disturbing provisions of the draft bill included criminalizing the “promotion” of homosexuality, compelling HIV testing in some circumstances, and imposing life sentences for entering into a same-sex marriage.

The bill would significantly hamper the work of human rights defenders and others who find themselves in conflict with the law merely by carrying out their legitimate activities.

“The knock-on effect of passing this bill will reach far beyond gay and lesbian people in Uganda, impeding the legitimate work of civil society, public health professionals, and community leaders,” said Aster van Kregten.

“President Museveni must demonstrate the Government’s stated commitment to human rights compliant legislation by refusing to assent to this Bill.”

Background

Under existing Ugandan law, anyone found guilty of “carnal knowledge against the order of nature” – a reference to same-sex sexual conduct – can already face up to life imprisonment. This already violates international norms, but the Anti-Homosexuality Bill goes far above and beyond this legislation.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee ruled in November 2012, in a case concerning Russia, that prohibitions against the “propaganda of homosexuality” are in violation of non-discrimination protections guaranteed by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Human Rights Committee ruled in 1994 that laws criminalizing consensual same-sex sexual activity were in violation of the right to privacy.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni must veto the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which was passed in a surprise vote this morning, Amnesty International said, calling it a grave assault on human rights.

This article considers the impact of international human rights law and standards on the protection of prisoners in the UK, with specific reference to the European Convention on Human Rights, incorporated into UK law by the Human Rights Act 1998. Although prisoners do benefit from the protection of the Convention within prison, the scope of these rights will be limited by the needs of the prison administration as well as the political climate and the public’s attitude toward prisoners. The conflicts between these variables are addressed. Respect for prisoners’ rights, it is argued, may contribute to raised prison standards and to good order in prison.

A consequential development in victimization theory and research was the idea that individuals with low self-control self-select into the various risky behaviors that may ultimately result in their victimization. To establish the empirical status of the self-control–victimization link, we subjected this body of work to a meta-analysis. Our multilevel analyses of 311 effect size estimates drawn from 66 studies (42 independent data sets) indicate that self-control is a modest yet consistent predictor of victimization. The results also show that the effect of self-control is significantly stronger when predicting noncontact forms of victimization (e.g., online victimization) and is significantly reduced in studies that control directly for the risky behaviors that are assumed to mediate the self-control–victimization link. We also note that the studies assessing self-control and victimization are not representative of victimization research as a whole, with intimate partner violence (IPV), violence against women, and child abuse being severely underrepresented. We conclude that future research should continue to examine the causal processes linking self-control to victimization, how self-control shapes victims’ coping responses to their experience, and whether self-control matters in contexts where individuals may have limited autonomy over the behavioral routines that put them at risk for victimization.

This article considers the geographical dispersal of prisoners in Russia. The concept of ‘in exile imprisonment’ is developed to delineate an exceptional penal terrain. The authors examine the historical ‘traces’ of exile in Russian penal culture and argue that the persistence of ‘in exile imprisonment’ does not fit easily into official narratives about the development of penality in that country. The culture of ‘in exile imprisonment’ continues to impose limits on prison reform in Russia.

Reviews

Reviews

The statistical effects of the October 28 Letter | Federal Bureau of Investigation - NYT

"Many good questions could and should al-zo be asked when Mr. Comey testifies in the closed session of the House Intelligence Committee next week... Comey's overall "motivations" might be complex and and at the same time simple: the security of the country. The details of these complexities are not easy to read..." - by Michael Novakhov - 4.25.17

Gangs, Intelligence Services, and Politics

M.N.: It would be unforgivably naive to suppose that the U.S. criminal Underworld is not controlled these days by the Russian Mafia, and, in turn, by the Russian Intelligence Services. It would also be unforgivably naive to suppose that there are no messages contained in the various criminal acts, and that there are no connections between the Underworld's recent operations and the present situation in the U.S., including the present investigations. As a matter of facts and the investigative leads, they might hold and provide the most easily accessible clues. Attention, the FBI and the significant others: do access these clues.

Smoke and Fire: The Trumputkins, the Trumpumpkins, "The Tillerson Ultimatum", and bad, bad Assad

By Michael Novakhov: So, the Trump - Putin mysterious marriage is on the rocks... The unresolved issues, whatever, whoever, and however triggers the attention to them and their discussions, have to be resolved: soundly, timely, fundamentally, and the long-term; otherwise they come back and accumulate, and together with the other unresolved issues, snowball and cause the avalanches. Nobody needs this mess, enough snow jobs everywhere... That's what Mishustin thinks...

"If you really want to fight ISIS, look into its origins and essence first." - Fight Against "ISIS"

In the opinion of the great many observers, those "sham" groups are nothing more than the creations and proxies of the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), formed on the basis of the coalitions of the disaffected ex- Baathist Saddam's military (and first of all, military intelligence officers, historically tied with the GRU), with the "rebels-for-hire", and the Assad's Syrian Intelligence Services, which are also the proxies of the GRU.

"Trumpism" as the "social-political experiment" and the "Gang of Four"

The engineered election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President is the joint operation of the German, Russian, and Israeli Intelligence Services with the major executive and operational role played by the Russian-Jewish Mafia at the head of the International Organized Crime - by Michael Novakhov

Tillerson's Complaint:

"Lavrov won't dance with me..."

Lavrov's Response:

"My mama done tol' me... A man's a two-face..."

Vovchick "The Tarantula", why were you so "loud"?!

For Russia (or any other state), this extraordinary, unusual, demonstrative, primitive, blatant "loudness" was like digging her own grave with regard to the US - Russian relations, especially at the time when their improvement and the relief of sanctions is so desired by them, and no doubts, they would understand this very well. This peculiarity in this affair points to the possible deliberate set-up from the third party... The US - Russia - Germany triangle and the role of the revived German intelligence in it after the WW2 have to be examined under the most powerful microscope, in all their hidden details, and in the historical perspective.

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Howl!

The America of my dreams: Shattered. Raped.

The King Trump - by Michael Novakhov

The public prayers for His Majesty's health, wealth, and well-being, and also for the development of his additional intellectual capacities should be held no less than three times a day in all public squares, government offices, courthouses, and the places of worship, and also in all the private and public toilets, with the benefit of generating the taxable and multiple extra-flushes. Hopefully, it will flush out in due time.

The Information Age

All the relevant information at your fingertips: Information is not a commodity for sale but one of the most vital and important inalienable rights. To paraphrase Descartes: "I have access to information therefore I am". ("Information Age" - post of 11.30-21.13 | Image from: Information - Google Images)